Oodie

 Oodie Patootie before she came to shore. We've been crating her at night, as she seems more comfortable sleeping indoors. Otherwise she sleeps down by the barn all by herself, which seems a little unsafe. 

Last night our gander ran up to Jane and bit her; she got mad and started chasing and barking at him, but I had her on leash before she could make fois gras out of him. Bringing Oodie inside right afterwards to take her to her crate was a bad decision though, as Jane was still reeling from the gander's gall, and she ended up trying to go after Oodie, who began honking so loudly I thought the neighbors would come over to see what was wrong. Poor Oodie. I gave her some Cheerio's to make it up to her.

Not everything is about you, red chicken. Our rhode island reds are constantly trying to jump in the car and drive away with us, be it the front seat, back seat, or the trunk. Sometimes they just sit on the bumper and wait. 

A New Goose for a New Day

The morning began with a shock: an African goose, slightly smaller than our two, was floating on the river talking to our geese, who remained on land. (Though they are surrounded by water, our geese prefer their plastic tub.)

Mother said she witnessed a strange event yesterday, of a woman who arrived by boat and came on land to shoo a goose (she thought it was one of ours) onto the property, though she said the woman was calling it a name, like "Roger." Sounds like the woman was guilty of goose dumping to me. 

After talking to the goose myself, and going inside to obtain some crackers as a lure, I returned to see that it had waddled to shore and was mingling with Duke and Spruce. I decided to call the goose Oodie, for Mama Oodie in the Frog Princess, as she too, came from the swamp. Oodie, I've found, is a remarkably docile and human-friendly goose. Whereas our geese won't come near us anymore, Oodie lets you pet her, pick her up, and she follows me around the yard. Duke and Spruce aren't about to admit Oodie into their flock though, as they have paired up, and geese mate for life. Or at least until one half of the pair dies. 

This evening, Oodie is back in the river, swimming around, waiting for morning, I suppose. Pictures of Oodie coming soon.

On another note: We have an egg thief. 

And it is none other than our esteemed chicken nanny, Jane. 

Mother caught her with an egg this morning; this afternoon I caught her alongside the chicken house with a second egg, which I retrieved. Then I went around the coop to take out the remaining egg, and upon rounding to the front of the coop found none other than that foxy border collie standing inside the coop, peering into the nesting boxes. If that wasn't enough, later in the day, she trotted out from under the house with a blue egg in her mouth. I quickly took this egg away, and not knowing how long it had been under the house, threw it in the river. 

Jane has also solicited the following letter to Craigslist in Seoul, South Korea:

I will be moving to Seoul soon with my human and was wondering if anyone knows of any agility groups or active competitive sport groups such as flyball or canine frisbee in the area? I've also been finding mixed information about dog parks in Seoul or areas to take your human where they can run around off leash. I'm very active with my human and would like to remain so in Korea, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

You can also visit my blog for more information on training humans, chickens, and geese: www.gooseexcuse.blogspot.com

Best,
Jane Eyre, the frisbee champion extraordinaire 

Tropical Storm Lee Part I

Photos from the Mandeville Lakefront / Lake Ponchartrain:

And now for our own flood watch on Day 1 of Tropical Storm Lee, or "Lake Lee" as the case may be:

The geese are having a blast, pretending they are in the Tunnel of Love. 

Where we normally park the car:

The geese, leading our chickens to higher ground:

The chickens, preening themselves once they've made it to shore:

Again, the parking:

                                     Our naughty Americaunas, Angelica and Kit. But what beautiful feathers:

River: "I'm going to work today???!"

We also had an enormous blue egg the other day:

"Let me in! I've got eggs to lay!"

Water Curses / Dog in Water

Broken Border Collie

Jane was peering out of one of the 100 year old windows in our house last week when the glass gave way and she cut her foot open. She had to get stitches, 4 different prescriptions, and an Elizabethan collar. She has also garnered dozens of new nicknames from, "Cone head" to "Hopsy" "Limp A Lot" and "The Queen." (Though we already knew she was a queen...)

Jane's homemade pumpkin and peanut butter dog biscuits made with our own eggs.

Jane doing a Lady Gaga, as we attempted to lengthen the cone a little so she wouldn't chew her bandage... it didn't really work.

Geese Fashion?

Of Ganders and Roosters

The geese appear to be getting increasingly anti-social -- to put it mildly -- I should say they are getting more territorial. The other morning, Mom/Mother Goose witnessed Jane going into her herding stance while one goose began running AT her in attack-mode. The goose quickly changed directions as it realized Jane was not about to be goose-herded but was about to do the goose-herding.

Last night, walking up to the house in the dark, one goose decided to charge me and bite my leg. (Thankfully covered by jeans.) We're wary of this transition from our sweet little gooselets to grouchy young adults.

This second note is a belated one: One of our second batch of Americaunas ended up being a rooster. While I tried to rehome him before he began crowing, the only home I found for him during that stage was with a co-worker who owns over 100 chickens and eats them. I decided our little Roo wouldn't do well there and waited until the right person responded to my Craigslist post. Luckily, a nice man from Folsom, LA replied and came to collect him. He lives on 8 acres and has all sorts of other animals. Little Roo is now free to crow his little heart out without causing us and our neighbors to wake up at 5am.

Chicken Revolution at Work...

Very American chickens. 

                            It's funnier when they are both trying to sit in the plastic tub at the same time...

Shell-Free Eggs

I found one of my Rhode Island Reds in her nesting box at 5pm this evening, but a moment later she got up and I saw that all she'd laid was yolk and egg whites. No shell, no "rubber" egg. Just the insides. This is the first time any of our chickens have laid a less-than-perfect egg. We currently have them on laying feed, they are free-range during the day, and have access to an entire road paved with oyster shells. So they shouldn't be deficient of Vitamin D or Calcium. 

I also found it unusual that she would be laying so late in the day. But our chickens aren't really on any laying schedule -- generally all 8 of them are finished by around 2pm.


Pictures of our eggs coming soon... the ones with shells, that is. And maybe a shell-free egg if she lays another like that. 

Email to a Potential Room Mate Who Has Cats

Hi Alleson,

Thanks for writing. I am going to echo Chris' sentiments about the cats probably being an issue, as we have two young, hyper dogs (1 border collie, 1 pitbull) as well as two geese (who are pretty bossy and have lately been charging the dogs ... this has had little effect on my dog, who still gives them a good chase across the land), and 8 laying hens. My border collie has lived with a cat in the past, and they became close friends but she would herd him pretty persistently. My mom's pit has never known cats, except for the stray who used to live in the barn, and if he saw the cat he would race around in circles barking at the rafters. 

We like to let our hens out to free range during the daytime, and so far, despite living in a heavily wooded area, we have not had any chicken fatalities. I am not so concerned about the geese -- part of the reason we got the geese was that we heard that geese protect chickens, or at least keep other critters at bay. I'll admit, I thought it was pretty hysterical when I caught our geese honking and chasing our pitbull. He ran away with his tail between his legs. 

We love cats -- so it's not an issue for us. I would be more concerned with the cat/dog relationship and the cat/chicken relationship. 

Let me know if you have any other questions. 

Best,

M

Turtle Mania and Our New Chicken Coop

Wherein, the bored collie Jane brings me her fourth or fifth turtle. Don't think this is a box turtle, but I really don't know enough about turtles to know exactly what kind it was.

Additionally, here are some nice pictures of our rhode island reds:

The African geese:

Carmen and Shane, two of our Americaunas:

And our new chicken coop, with Jenny, our Plymouth Barred Rock, as the tour guide:

Go lay some eggs, Jenny!

Our carpenter extraordinaire told us to use plastic milk crates as nesting boxes, and additionally, that you don't need very many, as all the hens will want to lay in the same nesting box anyway. He told us two nesting boxes would be more than enough for 8 hens, and so far, it has been.